Internet Fundamentally Changing the Way Canadians Research and Book Travel

Toronto, February 20, 2001 - The Internet is forcing the Canadian travel industry to undergo a dramatic transformation, according to a new Ipsos-Reid study. No longer at the mercy of waiting on hold for long periods of time nor travel agents' hours, consumers are increasingly turning to the `net to research their travel plans, and to book their travel themselves.

The study, which involved 1,500 telephone interviews with Canadian adults and 1,000 online interviews with Canadian Internet users late last year, found that the Internet is changing how people research and book their travel plans. Over half of Canadians with Internet access (59%) say that they have ever used the Internet to gather travel information, and 18% have ever used the Internet to book an element of their travel plans, including such things as air travel, hotel stays, or car rentals. This latter percentage is equivalent to almost three million Canadian adults.

Additionally, the study found that among those who have not yet booked travel online, 26% plan to do so in the coming year. Accordingly, the online travel booking industry has the potential of doubling within the next year, should all intenders follow through with their plans. This would be equivalent to almost six million Canadian adults using the `net to book travel by the end of 2001. When compared to other online transactions, such as purchasing of other items or online banking, online travel booking will be the number one growth area for the Internet in 2001. This growth is projected to even be higher than the proportion of Internet-enabled Canadians who will research travel for the first time in 2001 (12%).

"It goes without saying that in a remarkably short period of time the Internet has had a major impact on the travel industry in Canada", Chris Ferneyhough, Vice President of Technology Research at Ipsos-Reid said. "These figures show that Canadians are embracing the utility of the Internet as a means to make their own travel arrangements. At the rate online travel booking is advancing, there is a strong possibility that over half of all Canadian adults will be using the `net to book their travel by the end of 2003."

But perhaps the most substantial finding is that a whopping 92% of Canadians who have booked al element of their travel online say that they are now using travel agents less because of the Internet.

According to Statistics Canada, Canadians spent $12.6 billion on domestic tourism between July and September 2000.

Favourite sites

aircanada.ca is the favourite site for online travel bookers by far. A total of 29% of online bookers say that aircanada.ca is their favourite site, which gives the site a wide lead over Sabre's Travelocity (11%), WestJet (6%), and Microsoft's spin-off travel site, Expedia (5%). Two percent of online bookers say their favourite travel site is Calgary's Tripeze.com.

"Air Canada enjoys a wide lead in popularity, but given how lucrative this market is I'm sure it is going to turn into a dog fight among all of the players", said Ferneyhough. "Due to the lack of brand name recognition in this market for everyone other than Air Canada, it will be increasingly important to have a site that is intuitive and easy to navigate. The future growth in this market lies in the inexperienced Internet user, who can get easily frustrated and is more inclined to move on to the next site than to try and figure out what they are doing wrong."

The "Canadian Inter@ctive Reid Report" is the largest, most comprehensive and authoritative source of its kind about quarterly Internet trends in Canada. The results are based on two separate data collection instruments. In the first, 1,000 Web users from Ipsos-Reid's Canadian Internet Panel are surveyed online. Panelists are chosen through random telephone surveys conducted on an ongoing basis across Canada.

Results are complemented by a further 1,500 interviews via telephone with Canadian adults in order to verify results of the panel, and track issues among non-Internet users. The data was collected in September 2000.

These data are statistically weighted to reflect the population proportions of regular online users by online expertise and regional distribution. Our panelists represent approximately 12.4 million Canadian adult Internet users who are online for one hour a week or more (there are a total of 15.3 million adults who have Internet access).

With a national sample of 1,000 and 1,500 (for each component), one can say with 95% certainty that the overall results are within a maximum of 1773.1 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire population of Canada's regular online users been surveyed. The margin of error will be larger for sub-groupings of the survey population.

Established in 1979, Ipsos-Reid is Canada's leading market research and public opinion company. Its is best known for the Angus Reid Express Poll, the most widely quoted source of public opinion in the country. Founded by Dr. Angus Reid, Ipsos-Reid has conducted extensive market and social research in 80 countries and in 40 languages, and serves clients around the world through more than 300-professionals and 1,000 data collection staff in eleven offices. The company is a member of the Paris-based Ipsos Group, ranked among the top ten research companies in the world.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Chris Ferneyhough
Vice President
Ipsos-Reid
(416) 324-2283